Triangle
by Pfefferminztea
Summary: When Anzu decided to become a psychologist, she never thought that very fact was going to put her in charge of both the Kaiba brothers' hearts. though she can totally see why someone ought to take care of their MINDS.
1. Your Silence Is Your Biggest Scream

There are some things Kaiba Mokuba thought could never happen to him. One of them is falling in love with an elder woman. Quite another, and still more seemingly impossible, is actually not speaking to his big brother any more.

And yet, all of this happened – at once.

Not _exactly _all at once, of course. It started when Mokuba had just turned seventeen and discovered how utterly unbearable life can be. He didn't even know why, really. He just felt it was.

Of course, Seto would insist on him seeing a psychologist. Seto had always been more than ready to do whatever he could to make sure Mokuba was well, safe and happy, even if he had to deny himself a lot for that purpose. Turning to Mazaki Anzu for help had seemed quite reasonable, after all, they had been something like friends before the whole gang (safe for Mokuba, Shizuka, and, if you want to count her in, Rebecca) had finished school and broke apart, somehow. So, there were some things that just wouldn't have to be explained to Anzu. The way he felt about Seto, for instance. Or how Seto felt about him. She knew. She understood. Always had, somehow. And they'd always known she had some talent for this kind of thing, long before she decided to study psychology, after all, she had talked Honda and Jonouchi out of bullying younger students. With a little help of Yuugi's alter ego. But whatever.

So Isono was told to call her and make an appointment on account of Kaiba Mokuba.

She hadn't been surprised to meet him, after all this time. "Guess it's in your genes – or else you just can't help it, with all those things you had to pull through. Told your brother he had to see someone for ages. He wouldn't listen, of course. Have a seat." Why, of _course _Seto would not listen to her – he rarely ever listened to anyone, except for Mokuba, on rare occasions, and Yuugi, on even rarer ones. So that was how it started.

She did a good job, in some way. Managed to put his world back into place, before she – unconsciously, or at least unwillingly – turned it upside down again. Mokuba wouldn't touch a drop of alcohol for some time, like he had started to. Unfortunately, soon enough he wouldn't stop touching _her _instead – in his dreams.

Seto couldn't have helped noticing the change. Of course, he noticed how quiet Mokuba had grown, when he never used to stop talking before, provided he could get hold of his brother for once. But it was still ok then. Mokuba still hoped, and they still talked, about anything but Anzu, because _that _part of his mind he wouldn't even disclose to his brother, as much as he loved him. That was before Seto also started hoping, and for a time, they hardly spoke – or rather argued – about anything BUT Anzu. And it was way before they stopped talking altogether.

How exactly it happened, he still can't tell. Seto never fell in love before – and Mokuba still doubts he _ever _fell in love at all, but there's definitely something about Anzu he… wants. Not in the way he usually wants women. For, being Kaiba Seto, of course he has had a lot of women. Obviously it was enough for him that she started to hang around even more after he stopped transferring the equal of a whole monthly salary to her account every thirty days or so. Enough to make him realize, for the first time, there was something more about women than sex.

The first evening was bizarre , really. With Seto walking past and telling him: "I'm going out with Anzu tonight. Don't wait for me." Just like that. Like there wasn't anything wrong with it. And for Seto, there wasn't, of course, he still didn't have a clue about Mokubas real motives for inviting her over all the time – he probably even thought Mokuba was trying to set them up together. It wouldn't have been the first time for him to try something like that. Seto didn't come home that night, of course. Still, Mokuba doesn't think he had her, either then or later. Anzu had made it more than clear that she wasn't going to sleep with anyone she didn't love, and that she didn't love Seto any more than she did Mokuba. It was just that Seto couldn't admit a failure. Not even, or especially not, to his little brother. Not even by sleeping at home when he practically told him he wouldn't.

Sometimes he thinks he just ought to move back into the villa and tell both of them that it's ok, he doesn't love Anzu any more, and they could marry and live happily ever after, for all he cared. But lying, actually lying to Seto is the one thing he never managed to do. Oh, he became clever enough at inventing other ways to get round his brothers rules. Lying is different, and he knows he couldn't even do it for Seto's sake.

He thinks he ought to, though.

Thinks of all the sacrifices Seto has made for him. Of endless hours of study, of Gozaburo in a rage, and no toys permitted anywhere near the future heir of Kaiba Corporation. Of nights spent without sleep because one particular form had to be turned in the next day, otherwise, it would be back to the orphanage for Kaiba Mokuba. Of oh so many things.

If there's one person in the world Mokuba would really like to see happy, it's his brother.

But what good could a lie like that be, even if he could bring himself to tell it? Anzu wouldn't love Seto any more for that. She would probably be relieved, yes, if she had only one of them left to bother with. But he doesn't love her enough to give her up for her convenience. Not quite yet.

So, instead of thinking about his responsibility to give up Anzu, he usually turns to asking himself why he even loves her. Sure, she's a wonderful girl – woman, actually –, but he knows lots of nice girls. So why Anzu?

Part of it is probably because she looks at him and sees a person, a real individual. Not Kaiba Seto's younger brother. Not the youngest member of the Kaiba family (so far, anyway). Not the vice president of Kaiba Corp. Not one of the people in Muto Yuugis inner circle. Not even a classmate or fellow duelist. Just him. Mokuba.

Of course, she thinks of him in terms of what he is, too. And part of those are all the clichés that place him second row behind Seto, a fact that made Mokuba angry and jealous even while he still desperately adored his big brother.

Others, however, show him as an individual, as well. More than that, they prove all the things they have lived through together.

He's the guy that got kidnapped by Marik along with her.

He's the one that cheated Yugi back in Duelist Kingdom, but luckily she seems to be more amused than angry about that now.

Also, he's the guy that once wore the gown of princess Adena, a thing he doesn't like to be reminded of, but as long as it's Anzu, that's fine with him.

Ironically, he thinks, Seto likes her for quite the opposite.

He may not admit it, but he's quite comfortable with the idea of being thought part of what he calls that "pathetic little circle of friends".

At least that's what it looks like to Mokuba. Trouble is, Jonouchi and Honda were never that keen on calling the elder Kaiba one of their friends, and Yuugi tried to, but always seemed to wait for him to admit that he is.

Anzu, on the other hand, just decided he was, whether he wanted to or not.

That's just the way it is with Anzu.

She captivates people, draws them closer, often voluntarily, and sometimes without intending to do so.

Like she did with the Kaiba brothers.


	2. Climate Change

He doesn't know whether he loves her. And not knowing something he'd like to know is one of the things that make Kaiba Seto absolutely furious. So he chose to tell himself it has to be love, that makes the whole thing easier, for, though he would have preferred to call it a transitory passion in any other case, love at least gives him some sort of an excuse for not speaking to Mokuba any more. A bad, fucked up sort of excuse, but he has learned to live with second bests. Like being adopted by the most influential man he could find as opposed to living with his parents. Like producing toys instead of ever having had a childhood himself.

But deep down inside, he still doesn't know.

--

After all, he doesn't even recall her favorite food, so he carefully avoids taking her out for dinner, and leaves that – much as he hates it – to Mokuba, who always will remember random stuff like this.

He doesn't feel little butterflies inside his stomach every time they meet, never has.

He doesn't blush when he sees her.

He doesn't want to tell her how he couldn't live without her any more.

And he most certainly doesn't want everyone to know it is like this.

--

But, oh, he does remember how perfectly sparkling her eyes get whenever she shouts at him.

He does feel his stomach turn into a hard lump inside him every time he sees her, and that's not the only thing about him that will turn hard at a mere glance of hers.

He does like to see her blush because of him, even if it is in anger.

He does know life without her would be desolate, after all this time, and he so wants her to admit she feels the same about him, even if it would mean to hear that she feels the same way about Mokuba, too.

And most of all, he wants all the world to know that she is his, and only his, girl.

--

Which, of course, she is less than any other girl he ever had, though she is probably the one that cares about him most. He's not blind, he knows that most of the others either fell for his looks (daily exercise DOES pay, after all) or his money, some for both and the few of them that really believed they cared simply didn't know him well enough to do so. And even when he still regarded her as Yuugis annoying cheerleader, he was perfectly aware that Anzu knew him a great deal better than any living person, except for Mokuba, Isono and Yuugi – he could have listed Katsuya and the other moron, too, but he doesn't count sidekicks and their sidekicks. Nor does he count psychics that might or might not have read his mind using weird antique items.

Whatever, the thing is, Anzu wouldn't be his girl even if she were, she's too much of a personality herself, though she's good at hiding it. Just because she chose to stand by her friends come what may, and to cure other peoples lives she doesn't depend on them to have one. He never met a girl – or any person at all – who was capable of releasing such an enormous amount of small talk in so short a time, being that clever, witty and actually FUNNY. Who even knew that small talk COULD be funny? He didn't.

Not before he tried to date Anzu.

Tried to, because you couldn't really call it a date. He went through the whole program he could come up with to impress her, but she just wouldn't change her attitude mere of polite, even sincere, interest and friendliness. Normally, he has them sighing inwardly after a short coffee break at Starbucks, for her, even a whole dinner (no candles, it was still afternoon, and it being their first date, he didn't have to know her favorite dishes) and a spectacular sunset viewed from the gigantic panorama window of his office on top of Kaiba Corporation Tower wouldn't do.

Oh, she would tell him it was a wonderful meal they had had, and that she loved that view of Domino. But she didn't imply that that made him any greater in her eyes, and to be honest, he had to admit she was right. This wasn't the way he would really want to impress a girl, showing off his fortune and his company. But then, he didn't know any other way, and why couldn't she just SEE that he was trying to make it nice for both of them?

--

And then, he actually tried to kiss her. He rarely kissed, except when he already had someone pushed against some flat surface, ready to be taken. He wouldn't even call that a real kiss. It's part of the sex, somehow. With Anzu, he wanted to share something different, true, even – and was rejected.

Rejected, at least, was how he felt, though she was gentle enough. She simply put her hand – soft, warm fingers, shiny nails that don't require any polish – on his chest and said "No.", in a tone so firm, yet so unbelievably soft it almost sounded like she had said the opposite. Then, she grabbed her purse and walked out of the door, not without pausing to thank him again for the splendid evening she had had, and bid him a good night. "Take care."

--

Take care?  
He never did anything else in his life, for heavens sake.

Took care of himself, of his company, and, most of all, of Mokuba.

And now, for the first time he wanted nothing else but lose himself in some happy moment. Just to find once more, that happiness is not for him.

For a transitory passion, this is getting way to serious.


	3. Just a lucky girl

Mazaki Anzu has never wanted to be famous, except maybe for her dancing, but she gave up that plan a long time ago. If she had a choice now, she'd just meet the man of her dreams (whoever, however he may be, she doesn't know exactly) and settle down to have a little house, or at least a nice apartment of her own, instead of that tiny little flat she has now, get pregnant and work five days a week.

The way it is, she hasn't found her perfect soul mate yet, instead she gets lots of attention and fame she doesn't care about.

Its not HER fault, she tells herself, but its no one else's fault, either, and that doesn't make it better. If she wanted to blame anyone, she'd have to go for her parents, probably, for putting her into the same kindergarten as Yuugi, but they couldn't possibly know he was to become world champion in a game that hadn't even been invented back then.

Sometimes, some barely out-of-school "reporter" of one or another of the teenage magazines of Domino, sometimes even younger than herself and always female, will show up at her doorstep and ask her – "just between the two of us", as if it wouldn't show up in whatever paper she's writing for a few days after – what it is like to be loved by the two most wanted singles of Domino, if not Japan. And when she tells her it is horrible, really, and she'd rather stop it now than later, the other girl will just stare and probably wonder how Anzu can still expect "the public" to believe this.

It's just no use to tell them, over and over again, that she never asked to be the one thing that gets between those two that for years, for over a decade, have been more than brothers, have been an entire family, almost the world to one another, that, in fact, she never asked to be loved by anyone but whom she can sincerely love in return.

For, of course, they will just wonder why she can't bring herself to love either Seto or Mokuba, mixing up adoration or maybe even sympathy with the love Anzu is still waiting for.

One magazine even asked it's readers to vote – how unbearably boring other peoples lives have to be! – on which one of the Kaiba brothers she will finally give in to, for, at length, give in she must, no one can picture her to be stupid enough to refuse forever. And ill informed as they are about her, they have figured out enough about her character by now to know that she won't just take them both. Mokuba "won", by two votes. While all three of them lost another little piece of their dignity along the way.

Others believe it has something to do with the strange change that took place between her and Muto Yuugi a few years ago, when the two of them obviously… broke up, though they had never (as far as the public mind is informed) been together officially. And they still rack their brains why, exactly, she is still friends with someone that made her look so heartbroken for months. Obviously, no one will tell them the truth, and if she, or Yuugi, tried, no one would believe it anyway, for – the mind of a 5000-year-old Pharaoh taking over the body of an unusually timid and small Japanese teenager? Just how credible is THAT?

Of course, the teenage girls of Domino are not the only ones concerned about Anzus non-existent love life. But whenever Yuugi wants to know why she doesn't just tell both of them to leave her alone and move on, she just answers that she can't, because, after all, she loves them both, in a way. And even her best friend since kindergarten will shake his head and give it up. She would have told him that she loves him as well, or Jonouchi, or Honda, but he never asks. And she never talks much these days.

Sometimes, she will go out with one of them. She knows it's wrong, she knows she should keep this whole thing on a level where no one, particularly not Seto or Mokuba, can see anything but friendship in her actions. Of course, to her it's all pure friendship anyway. But who knows what the mind of someone in love (or simply obsessed, for who can ever tell with Seto?) will make of this?

But then, she tells herself, why shouldn't she? She's got enough trouble with both of them, what's wrong then with Mokuba taking her out for dinner sometimes or Seto asking her to accompany her to some ball he absolutely has to attend, for business reasons? She's just a girl, of course she enjoys candle light dinners by moonlight and dressing up for a sparkling, grand entrance. And sometimes it's just a little too easy to ignore the little voice at the back of her head that keeps telling her she will regret this afterwards, when she sees the headlines.

On the other hand, headlines there will be, whatever she does, and if she finally chose to turn her back onto the whole crazy family, that would probably hit the front pages of even more tabloids than just a little ball every now and then. So she can as well have fun at it, and never mind the press. Some of them will name her the iron maiden or the snow queen of Domino anyway. Or joke that what with all her composed coolness, it's no wonder Seto will fall for her after years of obsession with his Blue-Eyes White Dragon.

But, on the whole, they like her, for she will grant them a story whenever otherwise they'd have to make up one. Anzu always was that sort of person. Making life easy for anyone but herself.

And, lately, the Kaiba brothers.


End file.
